A prolonged legal battle in Kiribati involving the influence of its president which has kept an Australian expatriate judge from his family is heading back to its High Court.

In an emerging development which could define Kiribati's separation of powers from its judiciary, the one-time High Court Justice David Lambourne remains suspended from ruling on the law, triggering a constitutional crisis since 2022.

He was suspended over government allegations of misconduct, but Lambourne responded by filing a legal challenge soon after which remains unresolved.

Kiribati president Taneti Maamau has allegedly withheld the passing of a judgement in the case his government first brought against Lambourne.

The ruling Embracing Kiribati Party claim Lambourne's judgements were motivated over his wife, Tessie Lambourne, becoming the leader of the opposition in Kiribati three years ago against the government.

Maamau's party won the most recent 2024 election, 33 parliamentary seats to eight against Lambourne's Boutokaan Kiribati Moa Party, receiving a 54 per cent majority of the total vote.

It has ruled Kiribati since 2016, however three years later the Kiribati government severed diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in favour of warming to the People's Republic of China.

The decision has hurt the remote Pacific islands sovereign nation's primary development partners, Australia and New Zealand, who both house all of Kiribati's judges.

Lambourne has been separated from his Kiribati-born wife and family for the past year after he was forced to return to Australia but on his own accord, acknowledging the government had an order set in place to demand his deportation.

The judge on the courts of Kiribati dating back to 1995, Lambourne initially began as Kiribati People's lawyer from 1995 until 1999. He then served as solicitor general, before in 2018 assuming a role as a puisne – a lesser – Judge Justice of its High Court.

Maamau's presidency after the start of his second term in 2020 has seen several New Zealand judges depart Kiribati amid a battle of legal disputes with the islands' government.

They included Chief Justice Bill Hastings, who lasted less than a year in the post before he was suspended for ruling in Lambourne's favour over his role in the Kiribati judiciary, but also against government plans to deport Lambourne.

Three Court of Appeal judges also upheld Chief Justice Hastings' ruling.

But those New Zealand judges – Sir Peter Blanchard, Rodney Hansen, and Paul Heath, were also suspended for their ruling after collectively being accused of misdemeanours in a matter that is also not resolved yet.

A tribunal was set up to investigate the ongoing judiciary saga, but no report was tabled in parliament.

Maamau's government's actions had first prompted condemnation from legal agencies and law councils from Australia, New Zealand and throughout the Commonwealth, while two former presidents of Kiribati have called dismissing the rule of law as "unconstitutional".

Lambourne had told The Guardian in 2022 the actions of the government had been "an unlawful order to remove me in defiance of the order of the court of appeal".

But the government reiterated its actions were constitutional, citing a section of Kiribati's constitution that provides a 'check and balance' to prevent the judiciary from becoming "too powerful".

Maamau appointed Attorney General Tetiro Semilota as acting Chief Justice, the first I-Kiribati (Indigenous Gilbertese) and woman to the highest-ranking judiciary position, to replace Chief Justice Hastings.

The appointment caused further controversy amid a lack of perceived independence and effectively of having no functional judiciary.

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, showed concern that Kiribati lacks a "working court system".

Lambourne had been formally removed from his puisne-Judge post in April last year, after being suspended two years earlier while having his salary withheld ever since.

But Lambourne has finally got another Court of Appeal hearing and its judgement, released last week, has allowed the 58-year-old to seek further redress in the High Court of Kiribati.

The appeal judges upheld the government's establishment of a tribunal which recommended his suspension was, in fact, valid.

However, the appeal judges also allowed Lambourne's case against the tribunal commissioner's refusal to grant leave to challenge the validity of its report and has sent the matter back to the High Court where the issue can be fully heard.

The court also dismissed the government's appeal against the commissioner's finding that it had acted unlawfully by ordering Lambourne's salary be withheld during the suspension period.